Etymology — The origins of English words

From Tantalus (Ancient Greek Τάνταλος (Tántalos)) in Greek mythology, who was condemned to Tartarus in the underworld. There, he had to stand for eternity in water that receded from him when he stooped to drink, beneath fruit trees whose branches were always out of reach. Derived as Tantalus + -ize.

From sweet + -some.

Borrowed from Arabic طَرْبُوش (ṭarbūš).

From toe + rag.

From tele- + copy.

From teeter + board.

Blend of tetra- (“four”) + couplet (“set of two”).

From thot + -y.

From there + before.

From thermo- + regulator.

From tally + -man.

From tacho- + -meter.

From earlier swoll, from Middle English swal, swall, swalle (simple past tense), and suoll, suolle, swalle, swol, swole, swolle, iswolle, yswolle (past participle), inflected forms of swellen (“to swell”), from Old English sweall (simple past tense), from Proto-Germanic *swall, first and third person singular preterite of Proto-Germanic *swellaną (“to swell”); further origin uncertain.

From synopt(ic) + -ist.

From Middle English tithyng, from Old English tēoþung or tēoðung, from tēoða (“a tithe”) + -ing (suffix forming patronymics and diminutives) and tēoþian (“to tithe”) + -ung (suffix forming verbal nouns). Equivalent to tithe + -ing.

From syndicate + -or.

Shortened from earlier togemans, togeman (“cloak, loose coat”), from Middle English tog, toge, togue, from Old French togue, from Latin toga (“cloak, mantle”) (compare the doublets toga and toge). Togeman(s) was an old thieves' and vegabonds' cant for "cloak; coat". By the 1700s the noun tog was used as a shortened form, then with the meaning "coat"; before 1800 the word (in this sense usually in the plural; see togs) started to mean "clothing". The verb tog ("to dress up") came shortly after. The unit of thermal resistance was coined in the 1940s after the clo, a unit of thermal insulation of clothing, which was itself derived from clothes or clothing.

From tautology + -ical.

From topo- + -metry.

From teleio- + -phile.

Borrowed from French tarse, from Latin tarsus.

A borrowing of French tellurique, from Latin tellus (“earth; earthy”) and Tellus (“Earth, Gaia”) and -ique (forming adjectives). Subsequently also from tellurium, originally in telluric oxide from German Telluroxyd.

From Tom + -kin. From a medieval diminutive form of the given name Thomas.

Borrowed from Ancient Greek Θεία (Theía).